WHELDON PRESENCE FELT DURING INDYCAR’S PERIOD OF CHANGE

As much as it wanted to, IndyCar couldn’t find a way to shake the shadow of Dan Wheldon when it opened its 2012 season last weekend in St. Petersburg, Fla.

For one, St. Petersburg was the adopted American home of Wheldon, who died in the ill-conceived and ill-fated 2011 season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Secondly, all the drivers kept talking about Wheldon.

Then, and this is the kicker, Wheldon was the chief test driver of the new chassis package that made its debut in St. Petersburg.

For one weekend at least, the loss of Danica Patrick to NASCAR was secondary to the loss of Dan Wheldon among the IndyCar family.

“Dan’s hand is going to be on our sport for a long time,” said Helio Castroneves, who won the St. Petersburg race in a Chevrolet-powered Dallara. That’s right, Chevy.

For not only is the chassis new for 2012, IndyCar has invited other manufacturers to join Honda in building engines for America’s premier open-wheel series. And, yes the engines are as new as the chassis.

Chevy has designed a new twin-turbocharged engine. Honda and Lotus are using a single turbocharger variation of the 2.2-liter powerplant.

While every chassis is prepared by Dallara this season, 11 cars are powered by Chevys, nine are powered by Honda and five cars are using Lotus, which didn’t fare as well at St. Petersburg as the Chevys and Hondas.

Why all the change at one time?

Well, IndyCar had been using the same chassis since 2003. And not only was the old chassis designed for ovals and subpar on the road courses that now make up more than half the series, IndyCar wanted a chassis that would be safer and better matched to its new engine package.

More changes are ahead for the chassis. While Dallara is producing all the chassis and bodies this season, teams will be allowed to build bodies starting in 2013.

As for the engines, the manufacturers were lobbying for IndyCar to open up the competition while shifting from the V-8 to smaller turbocharged power plants. This might sound crazy, but IndyCar also thought the ear-piercing sound of the high-rpm Honda V-8s had become detrimental to the health of the sport if not the fans.

The three-car Penske, Andretti and KVT teams are all using Chevy engines, while Target Ganassi Racing has four drivers in Hondas.

The introduction of both the new chassis and engines has not been without problems.

During testing and the first race, the speeds were far below expectations although reliability proved better than expected. IndyCar is hoping the speeds get back into the 225-228 mph range by the time the series reaches Indianapolis in May.

And while the new chassis is designed to improve performance on road courses, drivers have found that it is harder to see around the car in front of you due to the increased bodywork on the new Dallaras. That makes it easier for the car in front to block overtaking cars.